Remembering back when Mozingo became a reality
Jim Fall
For the second time in a week, I am looking at doing an Opinion Page piece for this newspaper that will begin with comments on the work of a fellow staff member and the high quality of work they do.
Earlier in the week, it was Kaity Holtman and the magic she is able to perform with the electronic publishing aspects of The Daily Forum and how she is almost single-handedly able to keep us in a competitive position in that area.
She also utilizes her farm background to help pull together an Agriculture Page on a regular basis. And when she is not doing any of that kind of stuff, she manages to sell advertising. She is, after all, our advertising manager.
Today’s tip of the cap — like the Royals do — goes to Tony Brown, our steady-as-a-rock, old-school reporter who manages to crank out more stories most days than most anyone can imagine.
I don’t believe Tony ever worked for a weekly newspaper in his long career in this silly business of ours, but he certainly operates like a weekly editor who shoulders full content responsibility from week to week, always managing to produce timely stories in an interesting manner.
Such was the case in Wednesdays’s edition as he pulled together what, to me, anyway, was a terrific piece on this weekend’s 20th anniversary celebration of the asset east of town too many of us probably take for granted — the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park, as it is now known.
There were those back 20 years ago who never thought there would ever be any kind of a park around that new “water reservoir,” much less that it would develop into anything close to what we enjoy today.
And yet, here we are, and there are plenty of forward-looking folks who honestly believe, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
I had the good fortune of being with the Maryville Free Press, a comparatively short-lived weekly newspaper here, when the whole Mozingo thing was being constructed, and I can tell you that from a news standpoint, anyway, it was an exciting time.
There was always something to write about, something to photograph, during the time the dam was under construction — especially during the time when it was almost under water itself, just about this time of year in 1993.
The massive earthen dam that impounds Mozingo Creek to create the 1,000-acre lake was truly exciting to watch being constructed.
As I remember it, the majority of the soil used for the actual dam was secured from what is now the bottom of the lake, just north of the dam.
That excavation was made during the first construction season. The actual dam was raised to approximately half its eventual height the next season — when it was topped by water from extensive July rainfall, just like recently — and then completed the following year.
It was projected to take maybe three years to fill.
It took one.
The city council and city manager at that time were basically supportive of the development of the Mozingo project, especially then-Mayor Vilas Young and newly hired City Manager Bill Galletly.
The team that leads our city today, certainly the city council and the professional city administrators, are also all on board as far as Mozingo and its potential are concerned.
That is evidenced by the development of a comprehensive plan for future development at the park, the marketing programs supporting use of the park’s various offerings and the introduction of a new reservation system and website.
Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland has the park and all that goes with it as one of his primary responsibilities, if not his primary responsibility. His attention to detail is evident in the continuing improvements and innovations.
That was not always the case in the years between when Galletly left Maryville and City Manager Greg McDanel was employed some three years ago.
From my personal viewpoint — and admittedly I was gone for about 13 of those years in question — I have the feeling that Mozingo was considered as just another “expense” during a good part of that interim.
It came to be thought of as a very expensive water supply source for Maryville and the surrounding area serviced by the Nodaway County Public Water Supply District.
The lake replaced, thank goodness, what the 102 River used to be for by Maryville and the rural water district.
I seriously doubt many in the interim ever even gave much thought to what the park could become, certainly not the potential outdoor recreational attraction I personally believe it to be today.
Much less what it can become in the future.
Additional RV spaces, an almost overwhelming demand for rental cabins, superior fishing, outstanding golf — golf that will get even better with the opening of the Watson 9 course later this season, or early next, depending on growing conditions — and everything else those 3,000 acres have to offer go a long way toward making Maryville — the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park — a tourism destination unequalled in northwest Missouri.
A multi-use facility that, at its inception was literally on the verge of being accepted into the state park system by the Missouri Department of Conservation, has ultimately developed into a destination location that is rivaled by few others anywhere in the state, in the tri-state area, or in the Midwest, for that matter.
Over the years since its beginning, Maryville citizens have been generously supportive in their financial backing of the park and its continued development through the approval of an on-going, half-cent sales tax.
That municipal tax, first approved in 1993, has been renewed ever since, and it is slated to be voted on again in 2016.
That vote will probably be scheduled for April, prior to its tentative expiration in June of 2017.
As the city council embarks on its annual pre-budget planning sessions, I am hopeful that attention will continue to be paid to the developing park we have, as well as to new and better amenities I truly believe can be developed at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park in the future.
